Wednesday 12 November 2014 16:08, UK
Former Blackpool manager Jose Riga has blamed a breakdown in communication with the club's chairman, Karl Oyston, for his troubled time at Bloomfield Road.
Riga, sacked last month after winning one of his 15 games in charge, told Sky Sports News HQ that he had to work in the worst circumstances after Oyston approached other managers when he was still in the job.
The Belgian was appointed manager in the summer after keeping Charlton in the Championship last season but left Bloomfield Road before the end of October.
Riga said: "When I finished my first mission in Charlton, I discovered a very good competition. My first idea was to stay in England and be part of this competition. When my agent spoke for the first about Blackpool I said no because of what had happened the season before and it seemed to be very difficult.
"But we had another discussion and when the whole picture was explained to me, that I had to rebuild not only the team but the staff with some means, I thought ‘Yeah, why not?’.
You can avoid a lot of problems by good communication. We did not have good communication.
"I had clear ideas about the way to build a team and I was really excited, not only to think about surviving in the Championship, but to get more results and to move up the table.
"The first thing I wanted was to have a discussion with the owner to explain my ideas and what I wanted to do. We spoke for around 45 minutes about everything and he was certainly impressed and said he would consider it and that my ideas were good ideas.
"So we signed the contract and I remember well before signing the contract I told him the main thing to be successful is the collaboration between the chairman and the manager and we have to trust each other and have a relationship based on confidence.
"The first step was to give a list of players – the spine. I think the spine of a team is very important. With my staff I knew exactly what I wanted but he started having difficulties to answer to what I was asking.
"I was sure it going to be a very good mix but then you have to face reality and reality is money. You can avoid a lot of problems by good communication. We did not have good communication.
"He is very busy with all business. It was a big problem for me. When you start with only six players, you don’t have any friendly games before the first game of the competition.
"You are not sure if you will even have a full squad for the game. Pre-season is very important because you can give the players the consistency in terms of physical load and you can work on all the aspects."
Lee Clark replaced Riga on a one-year rolling deal but the Seasiders remain rooted to the bottom of the Championship after 17 games and are 10 points from the safety zone.
